Gadgetory

if you're like me you probably have a box or two of old VHS tapes gathering dust in your closet this how-to I'm going to show you how to archive those videos onto your computer here's what you'll need you'll need a VCR with an audio and video output on the back video is that yellow connection for audio you'll see either a white connector for mono or white and red for stereo a lot of Cheaper VCRs only have mono but if we're talking about home movies here it really shouldn't be a big deal speaking of which you'll need a VHS tape to record from and let me be clear that we're talking about transferring home videos and not copyrighted content like movies or TV shows it's against the law and it really doesn't make any sense you can probably pick up the DVD use for a few bucks at this point so don't break the law or waste your time you also need a computer it doesn't matter if it's a Mac or PC just make sure you have some room on your hard drive an our video takes up about 750 megabytes of storage if you want to grab an external hard drive to offload this stuff it might be a good idea finally the most critical component that you're going to need is an adapter that will connect between your computer and the VCR this one here is the elgato video capture runs about $80 and I chose it because it's both Mac and PC compatible you just connect these bits right here to your VCR and you connect the other end to your computer install the software and you're ready to go the software will walk you through the process you can name the file you'll make sure you're connected seeing a picture and hearing audio and when you're all set you hit the big red button to start recording then hit play on your VCR you're now recording in real time so if you've got an hour long dance recital or your garage bands first gig you'll have to wade through the whole thing to play through when you're all done hit the same button to stop recording and you'll get a chance to trim off any of the unwanted parts from the beginning or the end on the last step you'll see a file path to the location of the file you just created along with some extra options for watching uploading or further editing that video chances are you're going to be going through a bunch of these back to back so hit the again button to start the process all over with a new tape that's really all there is to it if you're feeling fancy you can burn these files to a DVD or load them onto your iPad but the main point is that you've rescued these home movies from a dead format so that a whole new generation can be tortured with them check out my Facebook page for more tips like these if you prefer to get your news over twitter you can find me there too and for more in-depth look at transferring your VHS tapes to your computer check out my full write-up on how to cnet.com I'm Donnell Bell thanks for watching